Competition shooting is at the forefront of testing your skills and ability. In the last few years 3-Gun and 2-Gun have been gaining a lot of popularity, especially the new “Practical Competition Shooting League,” founded by Max Leogradis, a multi-time consecutive national champion. With the increasing popularity comes new shooters who ask many questions about what gear is appropriate for the match. The simple answer is, “the gear you have.” You’ll hear this at many local matches when you first get your feet wet in competition. I choose to shoot my main “do-all” gun to compete with because I want it to do just that, do all.
Black Rifle Carbine Match
It all started with a local match carbine match at the world-famous Rio Salado Sportmans club called Black Rifle. Groups of friends join each other on the first Saturday of the month and test their skills on a wide variety of targets, sometimes even stretching out to 500 yards.
It seemed like the match would quickly divide into two groups: the competition shooters with raced-out carbines and the practical shooters, shooting their clone guns and “tactical” style builds. My friends and I would fall into the latter group. We are all gear junkies, so our arsenals have an abundance of practical builds. Although the race guns have an advantage by mitigating the overall felt recoil, we got much more enjoyment from running the firearms that we might use for hunting, night vision shenanigans, or SHTF.
These are likely the guns we would use in a defensive situation, so we wanted to get as much time behind the gun as possible. Practice makes perfect, and there’s nothing like the added pressure of a timer and 11 other people watching you perform on demand. What started as a way to become proficient with our carbines became a way of competing to prove that you can be just as competitive with a “practical” gun as the “competition” guns.
LMT Defense Specwar
My gun of choice is an LMT Defense Specwar. This carbine features a 12.5-inch barrel and a monolithic handguard. I am running the Vortex Razor 1-6 Gen II, and an offset Trijicon SRO in a Unity Tactical Mount. This rifle also is equipt with a B.E.Meyers MAWL and Surefire Scount Mini. All of this together creates a jack of traits that weighs (what seems like) as much as the Ford Taurus. This LMT will do everything for me; it is my “go-to” carbine.
Shooting Suppressed
In my opinion, a suppressor will make for a more pleasurable shooting experience. It cuts back on the noise, muzzle blast, and concussion. Most importantly, it makes you look cool, and that’s half the battle of competing.
I have tried an array of suppressors on it to see which “tone” I like the most. It is hard to describe, but each suppressor will have a different tone based on material, baffle design, and internal volume.
The three cans that saw the most use were the Q Trash Panda, Rex Silentium MG7, and the Huxwrx Flow 556. The Trash Panda got too hot. The MG7 had a lot of blowback and produced a gnarly amount of carbon after a single match. The Huxwrx Flow 556 was the winning ticket. Huxwrx patented “flow-through” technology paid dividends by landing me podium finishes in the last few 2-gun matches I shot.
2022 PCSL 2 Gun Championship
The big event for 2022 was the PCSL 2-Gun Championship. Why PCSL? Because it is a shooting league designed by shooters for shooters. They also incorporate some of the most dynamic stages you could imagine. It is one of the few matches that includes “natural terrain stages,” where you’re running through canyons and dry river beds engaging targets.
They recognize the two major categories of competition shooters and practical shooters. Naturally, I shot in the practical division with my LMT Specwar. At this match, I took 3rd right behind Brian Nelson, who shot an MK12 Mod O, a clone of a special-purpose rifle designed for U.S. Special Forces. We got to show many of these racers that you can be as fast with a “tactical” gun. The old saying holds true, it’s the shooter, not the gun.
Bring One, Bring All
At this event, a couple of hundred people showed up to shoot and help run the match. It was the final capstone to the new league’s second year in full swing. People traveled from all over the country to attend.
One of the most rewarding observations was the number of first-time shooters and law enforcement officers that joined the match. They brought their guns from home and their departments. This is what the match is designed for, racers to race and newcomers to get a warm, welcomed experience in the competition world.
It was great to see many people using suppressed guns to compete; many were also running night vision setups on their guns. These were also people who wanted practical reps with their defensive rifle builds. Law Enforcement officers could use their duty rigs with suppressors installed. More and more matches are starting to allow the use of suppressors, but PCSL was one of the first leagues to encourage competitors to use their gear as is. All and all, this made for a great diversity of shooters. The shooters who used suppressors added positively to the overall experience of the match.
How To Get a Suppressor
It would be best if you were shooting suppressed. It creates the most comfortable shooting experience and will protect your hearing in the long run. That being said, most of the time, ear protection is still required. A suppressor on a 5.56 host will only eliminate the bite from the muzzle, not silence the entire shot. The supersonic crack from the projectile downrange is still not hearing safe.
If you are still trying to figure out where to start your suppressor journey, ask your local gunshops if they are a Class 3 dealer for suppressors or head over to SilencerShop.com. Picking the suitable suppressor for you is a whole other article. Ask yourself these main questions: What is it primarily being used for? Do you intend to use it on multiple firearms? What calibers do you want to suppress?
How To Start Competition Shooting
Why should you compete? It’s simple—to get better. Competition shooting is the number one method for increasing your proficiency and accountability with firearms. For those who say that competition will build bad habits and you won’t be able to decern a match setting from a defensive setting, they are wrong. You shouldn’t be behind a gun if you can’t tell the difference between the two scenarios. There is a reason the ARMY sends their elite fighters to the Army Marksmanship Unit (The ARMY’s premier shooting team).
Competition shooters are the best gun handlers in existence. We know our guns inside and out and how to run them hard. There is no better feeling than stepping up to the plate, testing your skills and abilities against hundreds of others, and prevailing when the day is over. I strongly encourage you to try your hand at competition shooting. You can find matches local to you at PractiScore.com. It will build the reps on the gun you might trust your life with, which is invaluable. That is why I shoot my “Do-all” gun in matches equipped with a suppressor.
